Lipscomb Lady Bisons soccer coach Jon Ireland was watching film until 3:30 Friday morning, but it wasn’t an old classic.

Instead, he was poring over game film of USC Upstate, Friday night’s Atlantic Sun opponent at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex. Game time is at 7.

“They are speedy and they are athletic,” said Ireland. “Every conference game is going to be competitive. There is so much parity.

“There is always a concern to make sure you are focused no matter who you are playing. If we are not focused and paying attention to details and playing attention to details we are going to get beat.”

The biggest concern for Ireland, however, is that Upstate enters the game with a 0-11-0 record, 0-2-0 in the conference. The Lady Bisons are 2-8-0, 0-2-0 in the A-Sun.

Last year Upstate beat the Lady Bisons 2-1 in Spartanburg, S.C.

“Upstate’s record doesn’t indicate the kind of team that they are,” said Ireland. “They play extremely hard. They will fight hard the entire game.

“They have been unlucky in a lot of their games. They have had some bad breaks and some injuries. They are a good team.”

A key for the Lady Bisons will be to strike first offensively. The Lady Bisons have scored only six goals this season. No one has more than one goal for the Lady Bisons this season.

“We have struggled offensively,” said Ireland. “We want to get an early lead, first of all, to give us confidence. The last thing we want to do is let them hang around and hang around then anything can happen.”

Freshman Ally Marler has been getting the bulk of the playing time in goal for the Lady Bisons after starting the season splitting time with Erin Zerio. Marler has a 2-5 record. She has made 41 saves and allowed 16 goals.